The Flower Station

The many hats worn by a century-old Northern Michigan building.

Most places never become famous. They simply become familiar.

They become part of our routines. We drive past them, meet friends there, or stop in on our way home. After a while, we can’t imagine the town without them.

The Flower Station is one of those places.

Sitting along West Front Street in Traverse City, its steep Tudor rooflines and gingerbread appearance always caught my attention. Before it became a flower shop, the building served as a Sinclair service station and garage.

As an early filling station in the 1920’s, the building was designed to blend into the neighborhood. It was an approach that favored charm over efficiency with it’s distinctive architectural design.

Later, garage bays were added and the building expanded capacity to serve the growing

The many hats of the Flower Station.

demand for vehicles. Interestingly, for a time one of the garage bays actually housed a barber shop.

Like many buildings that have stood for nearly a century, it has adapted and worn many hats as the city around it has grown and changed. Windows have moved, signs changed and the initial little Tudor building grew wings.

Today, though, most people simply know it as The Flower Station. In fact, locals have known it as a flower shop for over five decades and it’s the oldest running flower shop in Traverse City.

What We Actually Remember About The Flower Station

When I first drew the building, it wasn’t because someone had commissioned the piece. It wasn’t one of the many iconic Northern Michigan structures. It was simply a place that always noticed for it’s quiet cottage-like charm and clear sense of history.

I decided I wanted to capture it in a way that preserved the charm. I exaggerated some of the roof lines, I omitted part of the building and I created something that more resembled a house than a business. That was before I knew it’s original design was to mimic a neighborhood house. Apparently, the original designers achieved their goal!

Meagan and I in the shop.

After sharing the finished artwork, something unexpected happened. The current owners, Dan and Meagan, found an image of the drawing in an Instagram post of mine. They reached out to tell me they enjoyed seeing their shop interpreted through art.

A few weeks later I stopped by to deliver a signed print as a thank-you for the inspiration. Like many of the conversations that happen around Stoney Bend, Meagan and I eventually found ourselves talking less about the drawing and more about the place itself.

That’s when I learned about the garage bay barbershop and got to see the historic

photos. I also had chance to meet the shop pup, Zuzu.

Later, I asked Dan about their customers and if they ever share memories about the buildings history. Dan mentioned that people do stop in with stories, but the memories are “mostly about it being a flower store.” That people don’t remember its years as a service station or the distinctive architecture. The memories are about The Flower Station and its history serving the community.

Real History Comes from The People Not The Place

Flower shops are all about memory.

Someone remembers buying flowers before a wedding. Someone else stops in every Mother’s Day. Maybe another customer recalls picking out an arrangement after saying goodbye to someone they loved.

The flowers are different every day. The people are different too. But over time those ordinary moments begin to collect in a place, almost without anyone noticing.

The idea that a place is actually a collection of memories is what I find fascinating. Places aren’t just old buildings, or rustic barns, or a neighborhood storefront. Drawing and painting a place is about documenting, on paper, what happened there.

The conversations.

The daily routines of life.

The celebrations or even the sad times.

The places that became a part of someone’s life.

Buildings and architecture give those memories a place to live, but they aren’t the memories themselves. Its true meaning comes from the people who pass through its doors and share conversations, life and laughter. Over time, those moments become the real history of a place.

Every Place Has A Story

As the little Tudor shop ages and changes the many hats it wears, there may come a time when it doesn’t exist anymore. It may need to be reshaped or maybe even replaced. But this drawing is a way of saying, this place existed and it served a purpose.

The final drawing of the Flower Station

It’s a way of remembering that every place has its own story.

Sometimes stories are found in history books. More often, like with the Flower Station, stories are carried by the people who remember buying flowers there, meeting a friend there, or simply driving past often enough that they decided to draw the building they admired so much.

We’re almost never remembering the bricks or the roofline.

We’re remembering a moment.

And sometimes that’s enough to make an ordinary place worth remembering.

Scott

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